JESSE PESTA

Jesse Pesta is a writer and photographer and a Page One editor at The Wall Street Journal.

He has lived and worked as a journalist in New York, India, Hong Kong and small-town America, where his family published a more-than-century-old local newspaper.

JOURNALISM

As an editor he has worked with reporters world-wide on WSJ Page One coverage of:

Vietnam's bride kidnappers, America's housing crisis, India's experiment in schooling, Iceland's weird economy, stretch limos that are too long, midwives who murder babies, a Chinese family's nightmare, FBI informants, reverse white flight and getting naked in Vermont.

He edited much of the Journal's award-winning Page One coverage of Iran at the height of the uprising that swept the nation in 2009, and edits the Journal's continuing online-privacy coverage, a project that in 2012 was named a finalist for the Pulitzer prize in explanatory reporting.

Other significant projects recently have included: "Flawed Miracle" (examining obstacles to India's rise), the award-winning series "Federal Offenses" (exposing dysfunction in the federal criminal code) and the award-winning "Censorship Inc." (investigating the companies that help repressive nations censor their citizens.)

As a reporter he has written about:

The world's fastest ocean liner, an unusual parade in the American midwest, India's out-of-date doorknob technology, the slaughter of Nepal's royal family and Great Britain's unhappy mercenaries.

In 2009 he traveled to Cambodia as a photographer for a project on modern-day slavery published in Marie Claire.

In 2001 he covered the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks from Islamabad, Pakistan.

CREATIVE PROJECTS

Jesse's photos have been published by The Wall Street Journal, Marie Claire magazine, The Daily Beast and other publications, and shown at the Exit Art gallery, New York; Photographic Gallery, Front St., New York; Chrystie Street Gallery, Chrystie St., New York; ABC No Rio, Rivington St., New York; Southern Indiana Center for the Arts; and Edward Hopper House, Nyack, N.Y.

Visit this family art site to see more photos as well as short-short stories, pastel art, cartoons ~ and a serial mystery novel. The site is a collaboration with Maureen O'Hara Pesta, Abigail Pesta and John Pesta.

PHOTOGRAPHY

NEWS

April 16, 2012: "The End of Privacy," The Wall Street Journal's coverage of the erosion of privacy in the U.S., is named a finalist for the Pulitzer prize in explanatory reporting.

March 2012: "The End of Privacy," the Journal's coverage of the erosion of privacy in the U.S., is named a Public Service finalist by the Scripps Howard Foundation.

January 2012: The Journal's "Federal Offenses" investigative report, exposing the surprising ways in which little-known laws can snare unwary Americans, takes home one of the National Press Foundation's top journalism awards for 2011.

November 12, 2011: Served as panelist and critic at the résumé critique for young journalists held annually by the Asian American Journalists Association.

June 29, 2011: The WSJ's investigative report on privacy, "What They Know," takes home a UCLA Gerald Loeb Award for distinguished journalism.

June 3-August 5, 2011: Selected photos on exhibit at the Exit Art gallery in New York as part of the well-known gallery's Contemporary Slavery exhibition.

As part of the exhibit, also served as a panelist in the SEA Poetry Series alongside Tonya Foster.

March 26, 2011: Represented The Wall Street Journal in a presentation at Yale Law School to discuss personal privacy and the online advertising business.

September 25, 2010: Offered memories from India of working with Danny Pearl, the Journal reporter who was murdered in Pakistan in 2002, at "Music for Humanity," a concert commemorating his life.

Here is a video of the remarks from that evening. The address begins about a minute in.

July 1, 2010: "Famed Liner Steers Clear of Scrapyard" is published in the WSJ, breaking the news that the tiny group of ship lovers written about earlier by Jesse Pesta on Page One are about to pull off the impossible and buy their beloved SS United States superliner.

The latest report is accompanied by photographs of the rarely seen interior of the ship, and a video report.

June 7, 2010: Page One article "In One Home, a Mighty City's Rise and Fall" by Michael M. Phillips wins the Deadline Club award for feature writing.

May 14, 2010: Represented the WSJ in a discussion of ethical journalism alongside Peter Bhatia of the Oregonian and Scott Carney of Wired, in a program led by Prof. Tom Bivins of the University of Oregon.

April/May, 2010: The Journal's Iran coverage, "Hearts, Minds and Blood: The Battle for Iran," wins the Society of Professional Journalists award for outstanding foreign correspondence, the Overseas Press Club award for outstanding reporting abroad, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Payne Award for Ethics.

"Farnaz Fassihi's courageous reporting gives us
an inside view of the unfolding drama."

~ Overseas Press Club

"Chilling personal tales from both sides of the issue."

~ RFK Award

April 8, 2010: Represented the WSJ in a discussion of fairness in journalism at the Nieman Foundation.

Jan/Feb 2010: "Diary of an Escaped Sex Slave" photos published in Estonian, Greek and Czech Republic editions of Marie Claire.

November 2009: Photos published in Marie Claire magazine, "Diary of an Escaped Sex Slave."

Oct. 3, 2009: Interview on WABC's " John Batchelor Show" about the SS United States:

Sept. 29, 2009: "Fans of World's Fastest Ocean Liner Put Out a Distress Call" published on WSJ's Page One.


MAKE CONTACT

Jesse | at | JessePesta | dot | com

@ jessepesta

Copyright © 2004-2012 Jesse Pesta
All rights reserved

Jesse Pesta